With the best practices of the FinOps Framework, your organization can really get the most out of Azure. Because in order to benefit fully from the cloud, it's incredibly important to adopt a structured approach to cost optimization. But what exactly is FinOps? And how does it help you keep control over your cloud costs? Ken Kenis, our Cloud Financial Management expert, explains it all in great detail.
Financial Operations, or FinOps for short, provides a detailed roadmap and practical recommendations for resource management and cost optimization in the cloud. Using these FinOps principles not only ensures that your cloud infrastructure works more efficiently, but also that you never face any unexpected costs. But why has FinOps suddenly become so important?
Azure, like a lot of other cloud platforms, follows a variable consumption model, which brings a lot of additional flexibility. But it also requires a whole different mindset. "In the past, developers and engineers worked within a very strict framework. And had to request IT services through different financial approval flows," Ken says. "In the cloud, those flows have become a lot more dynamic, but also a lot less visible."
That's why FinOps came into existence: to keep those variable Azure costs under control. And ensure that redundant resources wouldn't generate additional consumption (costs).
Using the FinOps principles, you get the highest return on your cloud investments. But how do you actually get started with it? Our approach, based on Microsoft’s roadmap, consists of 3 steps.
First, we closely examine your application environments, consumption models and resource utilization via our Azure Cost Analysis. There, we’ll mainly focus on the uptime of your resources, the structure of your environment and your current reporting.
After that, we’ll determine together which elements of your Azure infrastructure are eligible for (cost) optimization, based on scale, scope and complexity. With those action points in mind, we get straight to work.
And if you feel like our solution is not a good fit for your organization, after this first cost analysis? Then you pay nothing whatsoever. Together we'll look for a better suited strategy.
Once your optimization strategy is in place, we'll start refining your Azure environment to the last detail. And to make sure you're fully on board with the changes, we'll guide you through the entire process from start to finish during our FinOps Workshops.
Do you like to have a go at it yourself? With a few useful tips, you can optimize your Azure infrastructure like a pro!
And what if your environment in Azure is working optimally? Then you'll still have plenty of work ahead of you! Because monitoring your Azure costs is something you’d better do on a regular basis. And to support you as best we can, we are more than happy to give you the necessary advice with our Cloud Custodian Advise service.
Ready to make your Azure environment more cost- efficient? With our customized FinOps services, you'll soon be taking full advantage of the cloud's financial flexibility.